The real tragedy in bringing up the history of Chinese internal conflicts in 1683 and 1949, is the focus on the idealizing and romanticising the historical characters into mythical heroes. While the Economist rightly points out the complicated legacy and the fascinating analogy between Qin/Ming and CCP/KMT, it is falling into the same age old Chinese trap of determining legitimacy through the mandate of heaven. Romantic dinner table talk with no need for any analysis of the realities of political economy. Let it be known that there are no saints, and all have their failings, be it Coxinga (read Jonathan Clements Coxinga) and Shi Lang (governorship of Taiwan county), or Chiang Kai Shek (hyper inflation in 1947 and 228 event) and Mao Ze Dong (Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution). What these "patriotic history" narratives cannot hide are the suffering and damage to the country and population from the Qing Great Clearance in order to control the coastal cities, to the more contemporary detente between China/Taiwan between 1949 to 2008. With the cold war over, it is clear to international observers except those across the strait that cross strait relations will not be resolved through military force, missiles and aircraft carriers.

“The miracle of the discovery, that had never been seen, of the deserted aboriginal - which left for these grandiose mountain and river - shifts to the lost loyalist’s world belonging to former dynasty. The detailed adversity of the circumstances, that got him stretched less, of all-life surroundings - that were returned from personal sorrow to those sky and earth - turns to an all-advanced spiritualist.” - by Shen Bao-jen (1820-1879) of Qing dynasty’s Southern-Ocean Commercial Minister.

The above was written after Emperor Guanghsu’s permission in 1875 when Shen supervised the defense affair in Tainan, then capital of “Taiwan County” belonging to Fujian Province. Before then, Qing tended to hate Zheng’s separatism. Shen groaned the contemporary sufferings from European power’s insults at China, expressing thoughts of the ambition to have Han and Manchurian hug together.

For me, reciting this poem is the best way to remember Koxinga, the founder of first Chinese regime in Taiwan. In cross-strait China, Koxinga is a hero whose legacy must be taught to descendants owing to his maintaining Chinese dignity. In politics, there is no absolute question or answer. Therefore, making good use of the alteration of truth and explanation about this period, the present Beijing centre shows the political means of kind and smooth way to settle down Taiwan issue while holding attitude toward one-China policy.

For territorial integrity first, no other regime is legally allowed to be called China in any form. But, he brings Chinese civilization for Taiwan, full of Chinese nationalist awareness - although an isolated loneliness. Therefore, there is positive more than negative. In Taiwan’s history, all the recorded rulers comes from outside Taiwan except for Lee Tung-huee and Chen Shui-buan. The similar idea of critique from this to that is for Chen, who established the first real Chinese democracy. As dealing with the political affairs, too many paranoid or just peeping at the tiny - the halo effect - appears only to lose the original stand. Sometimes audiences feel the politics strange, but win-loss or say wax-wane cycle is ordinary phenomenon that politics is.

Zheng Cheng-gong (Aug. 1624-Jun.1662) was born in Japan. His father Zheng Zhi-long and Yen Hs-chi did piratical business in many East Asian nation. At age of 6, he studied in Fujian and Nanjing under Ming’s scholars after his father and the followings surrender to Ming. In 1644, Qing started in Beijing. After Shi Ke-fa failed to resist Qing’s military, in 1645, he accepted “Zhu”, Ming’s royalty name, as his afterward family name in Ming Emperor Longwu’s gift - the origin of Koxinga. Later, he rejected his father’s suggestion of surrender to Qing, organizing the rest of Ming’s affiliation and successfully forming the biggest navy in Asia. In 1649, the last Ming Emperor Yongli awarded him “King of Yengpin” - Taiwanese respectful request.

In 1658, he and Zhang Huang-yen had regained the territory near downstream Yangtze river but it lasted very shortly. After he failed to recover Nanjing, he depended on the strong navy army, figuring out another source of army for the sustainable base of resistance to Qing. In 1661 while ensuring the safety of Xiamen by annihilating almost of Qing’s navy, he listened to Ho Bing’s advice on the gain in Taiwan island. He took Fort Provintia easily. Although Holland’s chief executive, Frederik Coyett, resisted his military for several months with afterward reinforce from Jakarta’s East India Company, he forced Holland to relinquish Fort Zeelandia in Feb, 1662. He developed Taiwan’s territory from present Changhua to Pintung but, just after few months, he died owing to heat of the fever as hearing of Qing’s seriously sea-trade ban.

Zheng’s regime had a large group of trade ship and warship. He and his son, Zheng Zing who was supported by Chen Yung-hua, used the name “King of Yengpin” (interior China) or were called “Formosa King” (overseas) to keep their surviving regime. Since he began to war against Qing, his issuing visa for Chinese and foreigner was universally valid in Asia. For Qing, his regime threatened Beijing, finally ended by Shi Lang who left his military for Qing. In 1683, China returned to the unity state.

This article in Analect is excellent when Taipei’s leader, Ma Ying-jeou, and Taiwanese gradually forgot the real truth of Taiwanese spirit. In my youth, the local prevailed spreading Zheng’s anything from head to toe. Twenty years on, continuing to do this is nonsense in Taiwan with poor economic growth (1.94% by Taiwan’s Academic Sinica) - just leave his relic in Tainan “Fuchun” (town in Chinese) alone. With global situation in consideration of China’s Communist Party’s resolution in 2008 - recovering Taiwan by 2016 - the new carrier should be named Shi-lang, for the reason that China coexists with the rest of the world with promotion to the advanced vision of majesty. And another reason is my advice to Beijing.

Why not settle with Zheng Ho, a much more appropriate tributary big brother approach? Shi Lang does not convey the appropriate military values, after all he was a defector and a cruel governor looking after his own self interests.

The following is what Coyett says in his book about what Koxinga thinks of the so called Dutch friendship. From that, I have to say Koxinga has a very good in depth understanding of the Dutch and he must have conducted a good intelligence work before making his move.

Koxinga’s Response to Dutch protestations of friendship: “[Holland’s friendship] held towards him was of the same nature as that held towards other Indian Potentates and Princes: namely, that from their side, it lasted just so long as there was any advantage to be gained by it; for if they saw it to be to their advantage, no such friendship was observed, but they would not scruple in the least to throw a net over any one’s head when it suited them to do so.”

In Google search I found this excerpts from Coyett’s “Neglected Formosa”. Coyett was the last Dutch governor of Taiwan who fought and surrendered to Koxinga. Please read what he had to say in the book he wrote for what happened. I will try to get a copy of the book, it has gotten me interested and fired up.

Neither Koxinga nor Shi Lang is a black or white figure in Chinese history.

Koxinga is known for his harsh discipline towards his followers and even his family. In fact, after Shi Lang fled to Qing (Shi Lang used to be a retainer of Koxinga), Koxinga ordered Shi's entire family executed.

But understandably Koxinga needed to be tough. Before he captured Taiwan, for many years his only bases were the dual islands of Kinmen and Xiamen. And many followers were actually pirates before they turned Ming soldiers.

Shi Lang sought personal vendetta against the Zheng family. But after he captured Taiwan, Qing Court had ordered to relocate all Chinese immigrants back to Mainland. It is only upon the petition of Shi Lang that the Qing Court rescinded the edict.

It would be a bad choice if China named its first aircraft carrier after Koxinga. China will not make this mistake. There are plenty of names to choose from.
This article is designed to scare the Taiwanese and the Japanese.

KOXINGA deserves recognition for his fierce loyalty to the dying MING Dynasty

While the Qing Dynasty offered huge bribes to 3 former Ming Generals to help Qing takes over the whole of China--- KOXINGA refused to accept Qing's offer of rewards for abandoning the defeated Ming EEmperor

When KOXINGA's father went over to join the new Qing Dynasty--- Koxinga burnt his own official robes and denounced his own father as a "traitor" to his beloved Ming Emperor

In truth Koxinga is the epitome of integrity

(1) Both Koxinga and Shi Lang were true Chinese patriots because;

(a) Koxinga raised an army, went to Taiwan , fought the Dutch , drove out the Dutch and recovered Taiwan for China's Ming Dynasty

(3) Shi Lang, the great Qing Dynasty Admiral led a military expedition to recover Taiwan for the Qing Dynasty

ACCORDINGLY ---

Both Koxinga and Shi Lang deserves to have Chinese aircraft-carriers named after them

Koxinga didn't "recover" Taiwan for the Ming. He conquered it for the first time and added it to China. Similarly, Shi Lang did not recover Taiwan, he added it to the Qing dynasty for the first time.

Using the word recover means regaining a lost part of national territory. But Taiwan was not a territory of China during the Ming or earlier. So saying recover for those generals is like saying the Japanese "recovered" Taiwan in 1895. They conquered it for the first time.

Actually an even better analogy would be to describe the conquest of Mexico as Spain "recovering" Mexico.

The large scale Han migration from Fujian that made the island culturally Chinese

To name the Junk ship from Ukraine with either name is stigmatizing both Koxinga and Shi Lang.

This so-called aircraft carrier was obsolete and left rusty in the junk yard in Ukraine for years in the '80s. A travel agency in Hong Kong [likely funded by Guo Kailai :)] bought it and tried to tow it to Macau as an amusement park. But actually it was PLAN which clandestinely tried to smuggle it to China.

And finally after almost 30 years the PLAN retrofitted it and claimed it as China's first aircraft carrier.

So many Chinese in Mainland China felt proud and wept when it was finally put into service after almost 30 years.

But I would say their behavior is weird. Why?

(1) It is made by USSR for almost 30 years ago. So why are Chinese proud of it?

(2) It was abandoned to be an amusement park retrofitted with casinos. So how capable is it to tackle other updated aircraft carriers from other superpowers?

(3) Most likely the third grade Russian steel have already got metal fatigue after 30 years without proper service. It is a safe haphazard to the Chinese sailors.

I would not buy a refurbished 486. But so many Chinese are proud of PLAN owning such outdated junk ship. PLAN had better buy the just out-of-service Love Boat.

Actually metal fatigue only occur when a metal is subjected to cyclical loading. Obviously sitting in a dock in Ukraine does not subject the hull to much cyclical loading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(material)
They need more canine schools like HKUST in HK. With so many locust mothers fleeing to the island to give birth to puppies, the city needs a more robust education system!

I find it humorous at how Koxinga is once again a victim of historical reinterpretation. During the Japanese colonial period he was trumpeted as a bridge between Taiwan and Japan as he had a Japanese mother and resisted the Qing dynasty which still existed at the time of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

"In 1683 Admiral Shi Lang led an invasion force across the Taiwan Straits to dislodge an independent kingdom that had been established by rebels who fled the mainland. They had chosen autonomy in favour of submission to a new regime."

Where Zheng Chenggong's son had failed, Taiwan has succeeded for the last 50 years or so. Chinese hero or not, Zheng Chenggong's legacy and what followed after his death is indeed something about which China may not want to think too deeply.

Part of China or part of the Communist China? There is a very big difference.

Do you know that United States is about to join over 100 countries in the world to grant Taiwanese visa free entry? As for people holding the Chinese passport, they are still being treated by most developed countries like visitors with questionable intentions and hard to get a visa. Ever wonder why?

The colonial America was part of the British Empire, but I am sure you would not stand on the British side and insist that America should be under the rule of the King and live with all the persecutions, just because America was claimed by the British to be part of the empire.

It is such a blessing for China that Taiwan exists as a democracy. Taiwan is like a mirror for China to look into and see how ugly it is politically.

I visited both Taiwan and China many many times, the Taiwanese people are enjoying freedom like in any developed country, and the mainland Chinese are enjoying huge economic boom but still concerned the government can just pick them up and make them disappear.

Hopefully before long the Chinese communist party will become just one of the many Chinese parties who has to compete for votes to justify its legitimacy as a ruler for China. By then, I am sure the people in Taiwan may consider to rejoin China through a referendum.

I encourage you to visit Taiwan and you may develop a very different thinking on how to interpret this "Taiwan is part of China" claim.

Yeah, you can play with words, if it flatters your little nationalism and makes you feel better...

I don't see the CPC controlling Taiwan so far, merely barking everytime the Taiwanese by US weapons to try and protect themselves (who wouldn't?). Therefore it is a SEPARATE (=independant) entity, whether you like it or not.

Is Taiwan Chinese, well, yes. But id certainly is NOT part of the PRC, thanks God.

And as 9ZgVzhW5WD rightly pointed out: go to Taiwan and see just how different (better) things are there (freedom, politeness and manners are just one of those many things).

To further your post: why doesn't the CPC recognise the legitimacy of Taiwan over China, therefore allowing a peaceful reunification that is - allegedly - expected by all Chinese...?

I think the most telling thing is that - other than those like East Wind - more and more Chinese who reside in China are traveling to Taiwan and seeing for themselves what Taiwan is like and wondering why, when they go back home to China, their government is not like the one in Taiwan. They are asking why the people can speak freely and not worry about getting taken away by local officials and, more importantly, wonder why the leaders of Taiwan are directly elected by the people of Taiwan, er, I mean the Republic of China.

It really does not matter what some of the more nationalist Chinese think these days about Taiwan, however. Taiwan is moving closer to China and, with it, China will eventually become more like Taiwan. The former prospect should make the leaders of China happy; the latter prospect is scaring them to death. I can see one day when some enlightened leaders of the CCP make the same decision that former KMT leader Chiang Ching-kuo made when he allowed a second party to be legally established in Taiwan. China will have a democratic form of government, sooner rather than later. Standing up for that should make any Chinese citizen proud; standing up for one-party rule should make any Chinese citizen ashamed.

If invading Taiwan is the aim of the new aircraft carrier, the Shi Lang, I would advise Taiwanese government to stock pile some anti-carrier missiles and bet that China will need quite a few more Shi Langs to finish the job.

"On my international travels I heard that the Chinese are developing twin-hulled or catamaran style aircraft carriers with two runways."

That's just an Internet rumor.

The F-15 is quite old so it's not surprising to see (if true) outperform it.

If the Dutch retained TW it would probably just be another Hong Kong or Macau. You can make the argument for Taiwanese independence since they already have had it for 50 or so years, but you can't make the argument for Dutch imperialism. If the Dutch held TW until very recently, it would probably be "returned to China" just like HK and Macau was.

Not quite. Maybe Shi Lang coming in 1683 would have conquered the Dutch making it Chinese, but before the Dutch came and during the Dutch period Taiwan was not considered Chinese territory.

The Portuguese were the first to settle there and, initially, they had wanted to settle on the Pescadores (Penghu) the small islands that are between Taiwan and the mainland. The emperor of China sent a fleet that kicked them out, told them that Penghu was Chinese territory, but they were welcome to settle on Taiwan as that was not.

Under the Dutch, migration from mainland China was encouraged, and that's when the island got a significant amount of Han people. Before then, there had been a few Han fishing villages on the coast but the majority of the population was aboriginal.

So if the Dutch had kept it, it would probably be in a similar situation to Singapore, an independent nation populated by Chinese speakers but without any historical political tie to the mainland.

Is this the democracy that the US wants to export to other countries? Where the President is bought and not voted? Is this the democracy which the western countries hail asthe best political system? Or, are you getting it totally wrong?

Maybe you should turn off the State Run Media and read an unbiased paper for a change. He's under investigation by the FEC for this money laundering but you can bet the results won't come out until 2013

So the democracy the US wants to export is different from the democracy that exists in the US. The first is based on hard work (whatever it means) and the second is utter corruption. Then, why does the US not export to itself its ideal democracy?

No if you read my comment the republicans want to export the ideal democracy that make the country great the democrats want to export the corrupt politics that they and the State Run Media have engaged in since the 1960's.
If you have to ask what hard work means than you must be on the dole

You are confusing election process with economic policy, and also missing the point that BOTH parties are bought with money from large bidness conerns. If anything the Dems have only been playing catch up to the corruption practiced Repubs.

If we take the example of Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has exported to them the bad kind of democracy full of bribery and corruption.
Probably, the bad kind of democracy has been exported to Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.
The US must be very bad indeed to export bad things to other countries. Not only the US has killed and tortured millions of preople over the last haf century, but it is also exporting bad democracy to other countries. And even in its own country, the US has got the bad kind of democracy. So, what is the use of criticising China then.

The Dems and their Union goons have been intimidating voters from the 1940's and forward. Its the only party with walking around $$ paying people to vote or paying them to turn over their absentee ballots. When yo look up the word for political corruption Websters list the Dem Party and no other.
Iraq learned from the best they have bought into the Chicago model of politics vote early vote often

Sorry Jeannie the middle east has always been associated with bribery, corruption and lack of integerity its a fundamental teaching of the Crayon and Alley.
I'm unaware of the US killing or torturing any innocent civilians. Other nations military are more than fair game its what happens when you take up arms against the US.
Bad kind of Democracy?? The only time that's happen was under Carter, Clinton and Barak. During the terms of Reagan and Bush X2 countries learned how to govern the Right way according to our founding fathers

Maningra, it seems that the democracy in the US is a vacillating matter. It moves to bad to worse dependingon your mood. I understand you are not aware of the tortures committed by the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere; but I hope you have at least heard of Guantanamo and its tortures, or are you ignorant of that too? It seems you do not know much after all.

Genie, the level of democracy vacillates depending on the president and their adherence to the constitution. By any stretch no other country comes close to the US standard though
Not aware?? The reason is there weren't any. Any thing our troops did they have experienced in basic training. Besides enemy combatants aren't entitled to any consideration an can be executed at will.
Gitmo?? I'm fully aware of the prison there, they are treated better there than the citizens in France, turkey, spain etc.
Just because a few weak nee libs what to cry about making some one stay awake or stand its no big deal compared to waht are troops have to do every day in Afghanistan or Iraq

Yes I did, the poor guy was in combat far too long and he's facing charges. When you don't have any idea where the enemy is coming from as the situation is over there people can do strange things. remember their have been more American deaths over their from Iraqi troops and cops. so called allies...
Sure have heard of Habu Grabbe AND???? are you contending that some one was tortured there??? PLEEEEASE

My dear ignorant baby,
Don't tell me about combat. The Americans and their dogs should not have been there in the first place. This is the result of the bad democracy in the US.
Do you know that North America was, not so long ago, the home of millions of people who were called Indians, now natives? They own the whole continent. Now, they own nothing and they found themselves like in a prison.
Have you heard of the slave trade between Africa and North America? Tens of millions of Africans were killed and tortured over a couple of centuries.

Yep I'm aware of the American history, guess you don't remeber Roman history "To the victors belong the spoils"
have i heard of the slave trade sure have, it allowed those who came to learn a trade read and write. Africa not the middle east was the only country not to independently discover the wheel.
I don't disagree with you on the US involvement in Afghanistan or Iraq. But they were asked politely to stop their behaviour and refused to listen. The US gave them plenty of fair warning and they declined to heed them so they only have themselves to blame

Koxinga is a very intriguing figure as witnessed by his short 37-year turbulent short life.

He should have the least compassion about China -- but ironically he was the most staunch Ming loyalist.

He spent his childhood in Japan and his teenage as a pirate. After his father surrendered to Ming and later surrendered again to the Manchus, he refused to follow suit. When the Manchus threatened to kill his father if he didn't surrender, Koxinga placed loyalty above filial piety.

It is really rare in that era because there weren't many Ming loyalists due to late Ming's harsh rule. But ironically it was Koxinga, who practically didn't ever get a penny from the Ming Empire, that remained one of Ming's last loyal supporters.

Koxinga was more successful than Chiang Kai Shek. Koxinga had tried to recapture the Mainland and almost successfully reoccupied Nanjing. But Chiang so far had stayed put in Taiwan.

And of course Koxinga had bigger ambition like his planned move against the Spaniards in Luzon. But heroes died young.

The bunraku playwright is called Chikamatsu Monzaemon (not Monazaemon as our Analect writer misspelled). The play he wrote about Koxinga is not quite accurate according to history -- he wrote that Koxinga was cooperating with the traitor Wu Sangui to fight with Qing army -- but in fact Koxinga never did.

Unfortunately Koxinga died young -- at the age of 37. He planned to invade the Luzon Island then under the rule of Spaniards after his successful takeover of Taiwan from the Dutch. The Spaniards in Luzon were so scared that they pulled back troops from some northern islands and killed over 100,000 ethnic Chinese in Manila.

"... Mr Andrade, who has written extensively on Taiwan and its colonial past, described the frustration he faced in trying to get his book, 'Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West'..."

I followed the link to see what this 'Lost Colony' book was about, and I am getting the impression that Mr. Andrade is nothing but a watered-down version of Gavin Menzies, who infamously claimed that the Chinese discovered all the continents of the world before 1500 AD.

Mr. Andrade parrots the claim, oft-asserted amongst self-serving Asians and contrarian westerners, that East Asia could militarily compete with Europe right up to the eve of the Industrial Revolution, and 'proves' his case with Zheng Cheng-gong's conquest of Taiwan from the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In fact, it proves nothing of the sort. Zheng (I hate the nom-de-guerre Koxinga!) went to Taiwan with almost 20,000 men, and came within an inch of being defeated by a thousand-strong VOC garrison. If that's superiority, I hate to think what inferiority is.

Neither did Zheng show any sort of leadership in his many campaigns against the Qing Manchus or the Dutch. He lost a golden chance to reclaim Nanjing in the name of Ming because he naively believed that his enemy was going to surrender as promised. He drove his ill-prepared armies against well-defended Dutch positions, incurring significant casualties. If it hadn't been for the ill-preparedness of the VOC, Zheng could have well lost.

In short, Zheng isn't exactly an anti-imperialist hero that the mainland or Taiwan makes him out to be. His pyrrhic victory only proved the emergence of the West as the world's greatest military power, and his leadership left much to be desired. There's a reason why he could not achieve any significant success against the Qing, despite heavy antagonism against these nomadic barbarians by the Chinese at the time.

You're overestimating the Europeans. Sieges take time, that's not really a reflection on Zheng Chenggong. Just from the blurbs on the amazon page, one of the things he suggests helped the Dutch is the renaissance star fort. China's last big war with gunpowder armed opponents was the overthrow of the Yuan, they didn't have the constant warfare of cannon armed armies that Europe did until the Qing dynasty came in 1644. When the Ming dynasty fought, they always fought opponents who were less advanced.

That's why he did his first ill advised attack on the star fort and then afterwards decided to wait them out.

He didn't come "within an inch of being defeated." The Dutch counterattacked when he landed and the Chinese sent them packing. They got the second fort to surrender within days of their arrival and the first fort went down after 7 months. He didn't suffer more casualties than the Dutch 1600. The Dutch even sent a relief squadron to rescue the fortress but it was defeated at sea.

He didn't try again to storm the fortress after the first attempt because it was so costly.

European fortifications were far better than Chinese ones at the time because Europe had seen constant warfare between cannon armed armies. Not the case with China where the government was usually the only side with cannons.

Dutch surrendered with signed document still kept in Taiwan, it's out of logic and quite Don Quixotic for you to say [His pyrrhic victory only proved the emergence of the West as the world's greatest military power]. They are two separate things.

I don’t care its name whatever is called. But I think China should have a carrier soon. China’s military position in the world is weak and not in match with its economic might. China simply needs larger presence in South China sea and east China sea lanes.

Vietnam is now threatening Taiwan verbally on Taiping Island in South China sea that our government has been holding for decades and decades. Also Diaoyutai islands belongs to Taiwan, but Japanese marine guard ships have been illegally harassing Taiwanese fishing boats and detaining our fishing boats and fishermen in that water of Taiwan. If China is stronger, I don’t think no Vietnam, Philippines or Japan dares to threaten us in Taiwanese water.

"Japan has always treated him as a native son. He was born in Nagasaki and his mother was the daughter of a Japanese lord."

"To say nothing of his mixed parentage, or the fact that this Chinese hero was raised, in the words of Tonio Andrade, an historian, 'with a samurai sword in his hand.'"

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I guess by TE's admission, Barack Obama or for that matter Mitt Romney can't be claimed by the United States as the current president or a potential presidential candidate since neither was of "pure stock".